At the end of my junior year, my need to travel somewhere coincided with a time when I had almost no moneya condition shared with many college students. I had to find something that would give me full-time student status, fulfill upper division requirements, and get me somewhere other than Western Europe.

My searching led me to ELTAP (English Language Teaching Assistant Program). Under the Univ. of Minnesota Morris system, ELTAP matches college students with high school and elementary schools all over the world. With my airfare, tuition, and housing fee combined, the price was almost identical to living expenses and full-time tuition at my public university. Although ELTAP has assignments in Western Europe, the emphasis is on countries in Asia and Eastern Europe as well as Africa. I was assigned a position in Cameroon.

The goal of ELTAP is to development of cross-cultural understanding by assigning students as assistant teachers in local schools. Being an education major is not required. Cultural immersion is 24 hours a day. There was also time for travel around the country.

Expect some culture shock. Things often did not always happen when and the way I thought they should, and sometimes they didnt happen at all. One can fight it or go with the flow and count it all an adventure.